Category Archives: evaluation

Good Governance for Not-for-profit organizations in 2022

This primer has come about from a series of projects I have worked on in the last few years for clients in the arts, as well as board of directors outside the arts.

In early-stage societies, the board is often a working board, developing and providing services and programs directly to its membership, without any paid stuff and often relying on the deep involvement of the broader membership.

As organizations grow and mature and their scope increases, they tend to require increased capacity to deliver on their mandate. Capacity comes in two ways predominantly: money and people. As revenue streams are developed, and budgets increase, boards can hire their first paid staff person. The board begins to delegate some of their responsibilities to this person. As the staff complement grows, the board tends to move to being a management board that complements staff activities, and, eventually, to a “hands-off, nose-in” governance board concerned with strategy and policies that govern the organizations.

A Primer on Good Governance in Not-for-profit and charitable organizations from a practitioner's perspective, April 2022
A Primer on Good Governance in Not-for-profit and charitable organizations from a practitioner’s perspective, April 2022

At each stage, the governing documents should be reviewed and updated to ensure they meet the needs to an evolving organization. As an employer, policies and procedures must be developed and updated to satisfy a wide range of legal obligations emanating from the Employment Law and Labour Standards, Tax legislation, Human Rights legislation, Occupational Health and Safety and any other relevant provincial and federal laws. Any delegation of day-to-day financial management should be explicitly defined to ensure the board’s fiduciary obligations and oversight are fully met. Evolving social obligations to serve a diverse membership and the community at large as well as practical considerations to provide standardized, reliable services and programs require a set of clear policies and procedures.

Up-to-date, transparent delineation of lines of authority, responsibility and accountability are crucial, in order to avoid legacy behaviours from an earlier stage of organizational development – such as maintaining the committee structure of a hands-on working board while having evolved to a governance board – and to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations that become detrimental to the health and vitality of the society.

Good governance creates clear lines of delegation of authority and responsibility and accountability across the various organizations groups.

This graphic shows the basic organizational dynamic: the delegation of powers (authority and responsibility) moving clockwise from the membership toward front-line staff, while accountabilities and reporting are moving in the opposite direction from staff back to the membership of the organization.

As staff delivers programs and services directly to members, their relationship with membership can and should be trusted and respectful. Notwithstanding that closeness, accountability from staff never goes directly to the membership or the board; staff members’ authorities and responsibilities are delegated through the executive director. Therefore, staff is accountable and reports to the executive director who in turn is accountable and reports to the board who in turn is accountable and reports to the membership. 

To view or download the complete primer, click now!

Strategic Planning – Ten Strategies Framework in 2022

I have been using the Alpha Strategies framework advanced by Alan W. Kennedy and Thomas E. Kennedy, after taking a Strategy Certificate executive development courses with Alan at Schulich School of Business about a decade ago. It has been a great vessel to place assessment and planning tools like research-based SWOTs or Business Canvas tool into a broader strategic narrative. Kennedy’s eight Alpha Strategies framework has held up well and has been a useful tool in my practice. It covers eight areas to consider in its strategic management: 1) Business Definition, 2) Production/Service Delivery, 3) Infrastructure (Intellectual, real and digital properties), 4) Financial Management, 5) Marketing and Communications (Audiences and Channels), 6) Organization Management (People), 7) Growth, 8) Risk Management.

With the COVID discontinuities, a heightened focus on serious climate change impacts and major social movements and their mid- to far-right-wing backlash, I will be adding “environmental” and “social” impact strategies in my practice from here on. (Political considerations play in each of these 10 realms, so I am not adding political as a dimension of strategy.) It will be interesting to see where solutions will go from here for my clients. 

Ten Strategies for Strategic Planning 2022
Ten Strategies for Strategic Planning 2022 using Kennedy’s eight Alpha Strategies plus ESG

Digital Strategy Fund: Funded Projects 2017 – 2019

Canada Council for the Arts announced its unique Digital Strategy Fund (DSF) in March 2017 with a sense of urgency: “The fund is part of a catch-up movement for the vast majority of the arts sector, which is at risk of being less and less visible and less supported by citizens (…)” As a strategic fund, it is time-limited and was to operate from 2017 to 2021. The Digital Strategy Fund is worth $88.5 million.

UPDATE August 12, 2019

Canada Council for the Arts’ Strategy and Public Affairs supplied to me new tables on August 9, 2019. My initial analysis was based on Canada Council’s grants database information. That public information does not include the amounts committed by Council to multi-phase projects as those funds will be released based on interim project report. The different between the Grants data base as of August 9, 2019 and the actual allocated pending reports is just over $7 million, i.e. $36 million as opposed to close to 29 million. Another difference was in the year to which projects were allocated, i.e. many of the projects marked 2019 actually belong to the 2018-2019 fiscal year and are now marked 2018.The basic point of the analysis remains: less than half the available fund have been allocated so far leaving significant opportunity space for new applications to the fund.

Tables below are updated using the new data supplied by Council.   

I hope it will illuminate where funding has gone and help see where the digital opportunities spaces might lie for the upcoming September 18, 2019 deadline for the next full round of funding.

Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund 2017 to 2019

Table1 Digital Strategy Fund 2017 to 2019

In total, the DSF has spent $36 million for 352 projects for an average of $102,961 per project. (*IMPORTANT NOTE: The total number of projects funded is 352 over this period, however, multi-year projects are counted in each of the fiscal years in which funding is awarded.) 2018 saw nearly seven times as many projects funded, resulting in a quadrupling of funding allocated. The average funding in 2018 is substantially lower because it includes a round of funding for core funding recipients that maxed out at $50,000.

$36 million represents only 40% of the total ear-marked funding.  It is clear: there is tremendous opportunity to obtain funds for bold digital experimentation in and a great deal of learning about the digital realm  with the remaining $52 million over the next two years.

Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund - Four Funding Streams

Table 2 DSF Funding Funding Streams

During these first two years, Digital Literacy projects have 25% of all funding allocated.  Public Access and Citizen Engagement stream received 29% of funds – representing 16% of projects, while the Transformation of Organizational Models received about 26% of all funding for close to 10% of all projects.  This assumes all multi-phase projects will proceed beyond their initial phases and the allocated funds will be disbursed. The Special digital projects for core grant recipients makes up about one fifth of the funds spent, but half of the projects. The multi-phase projects while few in number represent a very significant investment of the life of the projects in particular when they meet their go/no go metrics positively.

In a sector that by and large is lagging in the adoption of contemporary and leading digital tools and methods, these figures paint an encouraging picture: Not only are arts organizations embarking on becoming well versed in the use of digital tools but a considerable number are working toward producing, marketing and distributing participatory and receptive arts experiences by experimenting with and leveraging the tools and methods of the digital realm; and 34 projects representing $9.5 million ($5.7 ,million of funds have been released pending multi-phase project go decisions for later phases) are looking at what digital transformation might look like for their organizations and sectors.

These projects are predicated on partnerships and generating significant benefit for more than the lead applicant. As such seeing a segment of the arts and culture sector embracing this opportunity to obtain risk capital for strategic organizational model and business model experimentation in the digital world is encouraging.

Canada has become highly urbanized, with about 17 million Canadians living in the six largest urban centres, and more than 80% living in urban and sub-urban areas of Canada. This begged the question about the geographic distribution of funds so far.

Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund Cities vs the Rest of Canada

Digital Strategy Fund Cities vs the Rest of Canada 2017 – 2019

The six largest urban centres across Canada have received 68% of all funding even though their general population comprises about about 47%. This suggests that there is a greater concentration of organizations and activities in the digital realm in the largest cities. Nonetheless, $11.5 million have gone to cities under 1 million as well as smaller jurisdictions including a few in rural and remote places. The average level of funding per project is on par when we exclude the special projects at about $103,000. Still, one of the promises (opportunities, challenges) of the digital realm is that it might create a more level playing field for geographically disadvantaged and systematically excluded places and people. There is a need to explore how smaller communities can build the capacity needed to access more of this funding. 

Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund 2017-2019, Regions

Digital Strategy Fund 2017-2019, Regions

Further analysis shows that every region in the country has benefited from the Digital Strategy Fund; and it matches quite well to the size of population, with only the three Prairie provinces under-performing significantly by the measure of general population.

Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund 2017 to 2019, Provinces and Territories

Table5 Digital Strategy Fund 2017 to 2019, Provinces and Territories

Perhaps not surprising given their population base or remoteness, the Northern Territories and PEI  have received funding for only 1 to 2 projects each so far. While on a population basis this would be deemed adequate, it does not reflect the depth and breadth of the arts and cultural communities.

In my  work with arts and cultural organizations in every province and territory in Canada over this decade, I have seen exceptional arts communities in unlikely places and without exception they have an interest in staking a claim in the digital realm. I expect and hope to see more winning proposals from strong local arts and culture sectors in Nunavut and Yukon as well as Vancouver and Gulf Islands, BC Interior, NWT, Newfoundland, rural Maritimes  as well as cottage country in Ontario.

Bottom line: with 60% of the ear-marked funding envelope not yet spent, the time is ripe for a plethora of proposals for the September 18, 2019 deadline. Plus there is money available for Digital Literacy projects under $50,000 to succeed any time you need them – indeed, you can apply as often as you need under this component!

Let’s get on it! Let’s talk!

Notes: I collated this spreadsheet DSF_2017to2020_Aug2019 from the data points on Canada Council for the Arts’ proactive disclosure website. It represents 337 projects and is based on a data pull on August 2, 2019.

The funding database for DSF does not specify the artistic disciplines or whether it belongs to an equity-seeking group. 

The three funding streams allocate either up $250,000 for single phase or $500,000 for multi-phase projects, and up to 85% of total eligible costs for a new project or 50% to refine or optimize an existing one. By any measure this is a significant and unique investment in the arts and culture sector in Canada. New in 2018 was that Digital Literacy projects of up to $50,000 can be submitted any time to be approved internally at Canada Council within a few weeks, ie without convening an expert jury. Also new was that the expectations around having a partnership lead these projects has been loosened to specify that it must benefit a wider group.

Three rounds of funding have taken place: the first closed in fall 2017 with funded projects announced in April 2018, the second one closed in fall 2018 with projects announced in April 2019, and the third one targeting organizations that receive core funding from Council was published in summer 2019.

 

New study on the arts in rural communities examines three regions in Canada

“The specific characteristics of the performing arts eco-system matter to whether they can fuel vibrant rural communities.” With this hypothesis in mind, I have been investigating whether there are common criteria or success indicators for building a sustainable, rural arts community. This exploratory research draws on existing literature about arts in rural communities as well as my work with organizations in rural communities from coast to coast to coast. In this initial phase of the study I focus on three communities: Haliburton County, Ontario; Temiskaming Shores, Ontario; and Wells, BC.

I will present findings from this new study for the first time at the SPARC Symposium taking place in Haliburton from October 27 to 30, 2016.

My work with SPARC goes back to 2014: I presented a keynote at the first SPARC Symposium in April 2014 on “Co-creating a Culture of Place in Rural Communities.” Then SPARC invited me to co-facilitate the SPARC Network Summit in November 2014. In my ongoing consulting practice I also work with small, rural and remote communities to help strengthen local capacities and capabilities.

A key goal of the SPARC 2016 Symposium (a project of the SPARC Network) is to create an environment where people can network: exchange ideas, find opportunities for collaboration, discuss solutions to tricky problems and identify big ideas. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet people engaged in the performing arts from rural communities throughout the province and across the country.

Whether your goals are professional development, learning strategies to attract new audiences, innovative approaches to sustainability, opportunities for information exchange, or developing creative methods for marketing campaigns or mentoring programs, it is SPARC’s belief that this year’s program will facilitate them: http://www.sparcperformingarts.com/sparc-symposium-2016/

See you in Haliburton next month!